A blog in which a synthetic inorganic chemist tests recipes. I test those crazy recipes so you don't have to.

Monday, November 30, 2009

Sweet potato rolls

I made sweet potato rolls tonight. There was a recipe in the newspaper last week. Yes, I know Thanksgiving is over, but I still have leftovers and need something to go with them. I also needed a way to get rid of the nasty sweet potatoes that my mom brought.
Don't get me wrong - my mom loves sweet potatoes and eats them several times a week during the fall and winter months. Normally they're quite tasty. But she tried to get fancy for Thanksgiving and added a LOT of pineapple in addition to the usual brown sugar, and it was too sweet. I don't think I've ever complained that something was too sweet, but this was. So I picked out the potatoes and made rolls.
I mixed them up in the stand mixer and then kneaded them briefly. The dough was a nice light orange color and was tasty. Yes, I know I'm not supposed to eat raw yeast dough but it hasn't killed me yet. After the dough doubled in size, I shaped them into rolls and placed them into a greased pyrex dish. The dish wasn't big enough for all of the dough, so I froze about a third of the dough. I let the rolls rise for about 45 minues and then brushed them with an egg wash and baked them.
After about twenty minutes, the rolls were golden and smelled really delicious. I pulled them out and ate one immediately. It was very light and was rich and buttery, with a delicate texture. I couldn't really taste the sweet potato but it did give the rolls a nice golden color and probably changed the texture. They would be good at a big dinner such as Thanksgiving or Christmas, but are probably even more enjoyable in a simple meal when there isn't a whole ton of other starchy food available.